HW 14- Second Text

Steven Johnson's "Everything Bad is Good for You" seems to flip the world around, talking about those things that rot our minds, namely video games, TV, and the internet, in a slightly more positive and progressive light. The video game parts of the text talk about how you are engaged by video games. Video games are irritating 90% of the time according to Johnson, something that most people who play video games will no disagree with. They tend to work in a way that for everything you do properly, you get a reward. Then from this new state, you can work towards your next goal. Therefore, video games can enhance goal-oriented thinking and planning. They also can help kids learn something they otherwise wouldn't by presenting it an attractive way, as opposed to something like a classroom environment that they might not respond well to. The TV parts of the text discuss how TV can teach people to look at the subtext of something, the layers of events below the obvious. TV can also teach us how to be socially active and how to act in an acceptable way. The parts of the text devoted to the internet talked about how people can explore and learn new ways to connect. This is basically an expansion of video games and television.

I found this to be a very interesting read. First and foremost, I thought that a point Steven Johnson made that did not specifically target any of the subjects was the most interesting. He proposed the notion that we judge everything based on what has come before it. Now, this isn't like some completely revolutionary concept, but to hear this clearly stated was very nice for me. I think that a lot of people do not realize that they are looking at something, say it's video games, with a prejudice because they are different. For years I have read articles criticizing the use of blood and violence in video games, and I am not justifying the usage or otherwise, but I wonder if the critics realize that it simply something that works for the medium, in the same way that a dramatic dialogue scene works for a novel.

I think that another interesting thing about the article was that it wasn't a straight out bashing of modern technology. Normally when people talk about TV, video games, or the internet, they only focus on the worst case scenarios. They tend to focus on the one kid who killed his mom for taking away his X-Box 360 and not the millions of people who learn strategy from their X-Boxes. So reading the positives of these things was a change of pace. However, I feel like with some parts of the text, that it was merely mentioned and it never went past a surface value. I mean, it is granted that every medium has the potential to express any story, but to connect the over value of medium to that of another would have been more engaging. I think that the internet has the most potential to have a greater value because it encompasses all of the other mediums for example. By that same value, I think that reading might actually have the least because it does not have visuals or interactivity included like video games and TV can. Going in depth with these comparisons would have been nice to see but I think that to get any form of recognition is a nice thing for the modern audience.

In comparison with Feed, Steven Johnson is in a different league altogether. He doesn't really flat-out defend or destroy the looming presence and power that technology has. He talks about how it can actually be of benefit, but he also talks about each medium in a way that they are not solely praised. While Feed was a mockery of American culture and the progression of the world, "Everything Bad is Good for You" was more like a feature article, leaving the choice up to you on whether these things are good or bringing the world to its knees before it dies.

To this point, Feed talks about how everything is about choice, or rather the lack of it. Almost the entire population has the feed plugged in, telling them what to do, what to buy, giving them a million choices to grant the illusion of individuality when you are still doing what they tell you to. Feed makes it seem as though the internet is leading to the feed, where people will lose their-selves to the system that is projected into them. Steven Johnson says nothing about this. He doesn't talk about choice, he talks about how there are good things to every medium, that video games can serve a purpose other than mind-numbing-time-takers. To compare Feed and "Everything Bad is Good for You" is like comparing apples and oranges. Both are similar, for sure, but you can't really compare them in a way that gives them both the justice that they deserve.